(383 ) 
respects, as already pointed out in the discussion of Fevzllea. 
The nucellus in this family is much more prominent than in 
other members of the sympetalous group, and differs from 
these further in the fact that two integuments are always 
present though the inner one seldom attains a thickness of 
more than two cell-layers. The outer integument is always 
conspicuous and the walls of certain layers of its cells be- 
come peculiarly thickened and sculptured. It will be noted 
that in Fezvlea we have the least departure from the typical 
sympetalous condition in the relative size of outer integument 
and nucellus, although here the inner integument finds its 
greatest degree of development, which may partly be due to 
its formation in an open ovary, where it is free from the pres- 
sure of the surrounding tissue. If the facts in the develop- 
ment of the gynoecium will justify our conclusion that /e- 
villea is a more or less primitive form in this family, it would 
appear that the peculiar characters of the ovule in the Cucur- 
bitaceae are not primitive but specialized. 
In the formation of the archesporium, evidence points to a 
single archesporial cell as the forerunner of the sporogenous 
tissue. While in some cases the definite hypodermal arche- 
sporial cell was difficult to identify, the character of the 
hypodermal mass concerned did not seem to justify the dis- 
tinction of a multicellular archesporium. It appears, there- 
fore, that the members of the Cucurbitaceae conform to the 
usual type in this respect, though in some cases expressing 
apparently no very distant departure from the presumably 
primitive condition of an archesporial complex. 
In one point in the subsequent development the species 
herein described present features much at variance with the 
corresponding stages in other Sympetalae. Here we find no 
tendency toward a reduction of the tapetal or parietal (Coulter 
and Chamberlain”) cells. These are always multiplied to 
the number of ten or twelve before the embryo-sac is formed. 
If the suppression of the tapetum is to be regarded as a spe- 
cialized condition, for which there seems some reason, we 
find here another primitive character, though we should not 
